At the very least, the Bruins accomplished the bare minimum of what they set out to do before today’s trade deadline.

Although Boston’s real deadline day turned out to be Feb. 18 — because the team opted to do nothing but a minor-league swap this afternoon before 3 p.m. — the Bruins are now a better team than they were a week ago, two weeks ago and at the start of the 2010-11 season.

Without anointing them as the next Stanley Cup champs, you can at least say that they’re closer to that goal now than Oct. 1, and they’re closer to it than most of their Eastern Conference rivals — many of whom stood pat or didn’t make as great strides through trades as the Bruins did.

Tomas Kaberle and Rich Peverley, brought in 10 days ago, and Chris Kelly (acquired Feb. 15) have all made contributions of varying size since joining the Bruins. You can’t argue with the results so far, as Boston has won five in a row since the night they traded a second-pick to Ottawa for Kelly. When you consider that all Boston surrendered was Mark Stuart (a healthy scratch), Blake Wheeler (a slumping forward), Joe Colborne (still at least a year away from contributing at the NHL level) and draft picks, you have to chalk up the trades with Toronto, Atlanta and Ottawa as victories for the here and now.

Sure, there was no Brad Richards or Rick Nash deal. David Krejci, Tuukka Rask and other key Bruins performers stayed put instead of becoming part of an amazing blockbuster that landed some superstar — rumored or not — on Causeway Street. But the Bruins added their missing power-play quarterback, they added speed on the wing and gave themselves an injection of more grit and faceoff proficiency. All in all, Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli was pleased with his work.

“If you look, we’ve done three deals where we added three good players,” he told the assembled media today in Ottawa, where the Bruins will play tomorrow night. “There’s been some subtraction but we felt the net benefit was very positive.”

He’s right. Chiarelli can tell the players in the dressing room, his coaching staff and his fan base that in the end, for the 2010-11 campaign, he netted a positive. That achievement is more impressive when you consider that judging by the sparse number of deals done involving impact NHL players, and Chiarelli’s statement that “there weren’t as many players available [as past years],” making even the slightest upgrade this trading season was like trying to get Charlie Sheen to take a vow of silence.

Such is the life in the welfare state that is the NHL — where the salary cap and loser points give the illusion that every team (except Ottawa, Florida and Edmonton) is in the race until the end.

There are fans in other cities that have more of a beef than those in Boston. If you’re a New York Rangers fan, you have to be wondering why your team didn’t add anything to the 19th-ranked offense in the league. Washington thinks it landed the second-line center it has coveted in veteran Jason Arnott and bolstered its back end by picking up Dennis Wideman. Certainly both acquisitions could be scrutinized as not enough to get the Capitals, first-round failures as a top seed a year ago, back in the championship equation. After all, Arnott, an aged rental, came at the price of modestly-compensated character player David Steckel, and Wideman … well we all know about his high-risk, low-reward game.

In Montreal, it seems it’ll be a Smurfs victory or bust. The Canadiens failed to add any size to their diminutive front line, which even Randy Newman can see needed some bulk. The Habs also failed to help their injury-depleted back end (beyond the earlier acquisitions of the defensively suspect James Wisniewski and spare parts Paul Mara and Brent Sopel earlier). The Habs are going to have a hard time catching the Bruins in the Northeast Division based on how the two teams altered themselves leading up to this deadline. And it’s doubtful another Cinderella postseason run will await the tiny Habs this spring.

Maybe the Bruins are right and the equation in the NHL has changed. Perhaps you don’t need a bonafide sniper or two to carry your offense in the postseason anymore. Although I’m not ready to buy in 100 percent to that theory and plan a June parade through the Hub, on paper I’d have to favor the Bruins in any playoff series against an Eastern foe other than Philadelphia with the way the teams are presently constituted. Pittsburgh could get Sidney Crosby back at full strength and Washington might respond to its deals the way the Bruins have to their deals to change those odds.

But right now in my mind, there’s the Bruins and above them the Flyers in the East. And we all saw what happened to the highly touted Capitals, Penguins and New Jersey Devils in last year’s postseason as seemingly unstoppable higher seeds.

For those that were hoping Peter Chiarelli would annex another superstar before this year’s deadline — including this blogger — it obviously wasn’t going to happen. It was hard enough to squeeze a third-line winger or third-pair defenseman out of some teams, judging by the few trades that were made.

Reasonably, Chiarelli did all he could do to solidify this year’s club and make sure it has more than the puncher’s chance the Bruins had last season when the postseason opened. That’s nothing to complain about.

First, if Thomas’ age should concern us then Lidstrom’s should be of concern to. Thomas is the best goalie in the league. No one matches us there. Certainly not Philly or Detroit.

Chara vs. Lidstrom. Well fact is, after Nik, Detroit’s D gets pretty sketchy. After Chara we have Kaberle who, beyond his offensive gifts, allows Chara to now place more focus on shutting people down. He is the best shut-down Dman in the league. It’s not even close really. +21 with only 14 minus games. Lidstrom is Even with 23 minus games and, just for argument, Pronger also has 14 minus games… in 20 less appearances than Chara. Then after Chara and Kaberle, we have a bunch of shot-blocking monsters, who do what it takes to win on a nightly basis. I shouldn’t even have to defend our defense. Our #6 leads the league in +/-. Between them and TT, we’re the best in the league, in person and statistically. Subject over.

Everyone keeps bringing up our need for a sniper??! I still don’t get it. Lucic has 27 goals (6 out of second in the league), and Horton and Ryder will heat up as the playoffs approach. We could of jeopardized our depth to bring any “sniper” into the Goal-Scoring Bermuda Triangle that is Boston and it would still have been a huge risk. Scoring comes and goes. Solid defense is guaranteed.

And speaking of scoring, without this so-called “top-end talent”, we are 4th in league scoring, on a team who’s leader has 50 points. Does anybody notice or care how ridiculous that is?!?! Philly is so deep offensively blah, blah, blah. They have 8 more goals than us.

I also didn’t miss this sniper as I watched our top-line OWN the Sedin line on Saturday night. Vancouver can make excuses all they want about missing players, but that first line was in tact and did nothin vs ours, while Lucic, Krecji and Horton won us the game.

I’ll trade depth and 3-zone responsibility for scoring any day. The fact we’re the best defensive team in the league while being the 4th highest scoring one is just icing on the cake.

Oh and Brian, “third and fourth line depth is over rated come playoff time”?!? Try telling that to any of the teams who played Chicago last spring.

bo
first of all lidstrom is better than chara and there are two mvp’s in front of him.

philly has a much deeper much more talented offense than the bruins and they’ve got pronger in the back, equivalent of chara and a better puck mover.

third and fourth line depth is over rated come playoff time as teams don’t roll 4 deep through the playoffs.

i don’t care much about richards but to your point, you could have saved 2 million on kelly by not making that useless deal. the bruins depth up front is way over stated because they don’t have any top end talent. they have a team full of depth forwards and maybe some second liners. simple as that. the bolts, wings and canucks all have third and fourth lines that can certainly play with the third and fourth lines of the bruins. and that is supposed to be the bruins strength.

there is nobody who had the first half tim thomas had this year no doubt about it. but he is in his mid 30’s, and wear and tear and fatigue have to be concerns.

Brian – not to dismiss your observation – The Bs really don’t have that forward who other teams have to take out of the game, but I think that is a strength. I think their forward lines are very similar to Philly and the strength is not in one line, but in depth. I for one – as much as I loved watching them play – am glad that the Bs aren’t built around an Oates-Neely and scrubs format any longer. We’ve seen again and again how Chara can take a Stamkos, Kessel, Ovechkin etc.. out of the mix and leave the opponent with not much. When opponents look at the Bs – they know to win, its their second, third and 4th lines that have to match up, and in many cases they can’t.

That said – No club has it all. You point to other teams with MVPs on their forward lines. Well what other club can match Chara (perennial MVP candidate) and Thomas (need I bother) on the back end.

So… lets pretend the Bs did reach to get Richards (the cheapest option for a top end forward). It took a number 1, top end prospect and future pick 3 to sign Penner. What do you think it would have taken to get Richards?! The Toronto pick for sure, and then we’d need to ship Krecji, plus another 3 million in salary which would be who exactly, and replaced by who exactly?

I guess they could have gotten the top end forward and not Kaberle, Kelly and Peverely.. but again, I agree with PC that we are better off 4 lines deep with a top defense and goal-tender than resting all our chips on a top end offenseman.

PC did the right thing, he has a good locker room and he didn’t screw around with it. instead he kept the existing roster largely intact and added quality talent as Matt aptly described. bona fide sniper needed to win the cup? the B’s just might have enough firepower

You’re right, they certainly could have done more for that coveted winger, and we could have made someone available given our picks, prospects and young NHL talent and maybe, just maybe become the beasts of the East. But I like that Chiarelli kept the farm pretty well stocked and will probably try to make a deal during the off-season for such a player, if it turns out this lineup is a failure. I feel like he gave us a chance at the cup, even if not the inside track, while keeping our future bright.

bk. they need to give him th opportunity, he’s been playing well, take the training wheels off. he can’t provide speed up the wing?

i don’t agree that the bruins did “all” they could. they still don’t have a top six forward. if you look at the leauge, all the contenders have legitimate stars up front. the bruins don’t. i’m talking perennial potential mvp candidates. datsyuk and zetterberg in detroit, the sedins in vancouver, loads of talent up front in philly. stamkos, lecavalier, st. louis in tampa. the bruins aren’t even close to these teams up front. they loaded up on 3rd and 4th liners instead of making a deal for the impact forward that they lack.

@Bk, it would certainly be a great thing to see Seg’s skating stride for stride with Peverly, but I just don’t think that’s realistic right now. Kelly is the guy that brings grit to that line, and dropping him out of there would force Seguin to try filling that role; we’ve seen what that bring so far. I can’t wait to see this kid grow over the next few seasons, though.

I would love to Seguin to continue improving, it would be a huge for this team if the rookie is able to find his stride down the stretch. Maybe they can put him with peverly and ryder, then drop kelly down to the 4th line.

I’m curious how CJ will shift his lines against Philly now. Seems the Kelly line with he and Peverley might have the wheels to stay with the Giroux – VanReims – Carter line. That would put Bergeron on Mike Richards (keep Krecji the hell away from Richards!) and Marchand on Versteeg. Tell me that’s not worth the price of admission.